


Shelter From the Storm

by 2raggedclaws



Category: Jack Taylor (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:21:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24809212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2raggedclaws/pseuds/2raggedclaws
Summary: From June 8, 2012 on LJ and Tumblr.Spoilers through The Pikemen.
Relationships: Jack Taylor/Kate Noonan
Kudos: 4





	Shelter From the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> From June 8, 2012 on LJ and Tumblr. 
> 
> Spoilers through The Pikemen.

Shelter From the Storm

I.

“Christ,” he thought. 

In fact, he spoke it out loud. Choking it through a mouth full of blood and bile and the jagged pieces of what might be a broken tooth.

“Christ.”

He rolled slightly to dig his phone out of his pocket, and felt things in his flank slide where they shouldn’t. A wet grating that woke sheets of pain and stopped his breath. Right. Moving was a very bad idea.

Cody. He should call Cody. Leave Kate out of this sordid mess and keep what dignity he could. 

“Shit.”

What good was a bloody sidekick you couldn’t call to pick you up when your ex-girlfriend’s lover just kicked your ass? Cody didn’t have a fucking car, and this wasn’t something he wanted passed around the taxi ranks. 

“Fucking hell.”

He worked his phone open and punched “1” and “enter”. Kate was on speed dial. At least he didn’t have long to think it through.

“Kate ...”

II.

“Fucking hell.”

Kate tossed her phone on the passenger seat and heeled her car around hard. 

“For fuck’s sake.”

This was getting out of hand. Jack Taylor took her breath away a bit, if she was being honest, but it was getting a bit ridiculous. A chance encounter had blossomed into a weird friendship that was both strangely intimate and rife with walls. 

In truth, it was starting to scare her. His familiarity. How quickly he called for her help, how often he asked her to step over the line that separated guard from accomplice. How hard it was to say no. 

Boundaries. 

“For fuck’s sake,” she repeated as headed to the Roisin Dubh.

III.

Bloody embarrassing this was, having Kate pick him up off the floor. Having to explain how he got there. All of it. Having to look her in the eye as he did so. Having to deal with the look that he found there. 

Bleeding on her a bit as she tried to support his good side. Choking on sobs when they slipped a bit on their way out the door. Blood running down the back of his collar.

What the hell was this? What the hell was he doing? What were they doing? 

The confusion and anger in her eyes almost hid the hurt he found there. 

Almost. 

So she was in this too then? This weirdly intimate dance they were doing? Feeling each other out like fighters judging distance before throwing the blows that counted. 

It was unfair, mixing her up in all of this. He knew enough to know that much, but he hurt almost enough not to care. 

Almost.

He’d had her drop him off at the hospital entrance, and had lurched his way inside. She didn’t need to get involved officially. Didn’t need to have her name taken down on intake forms and give contact numbers to nurses. No, he’d sent her home clean he hoped, and she’d promised to check on him, officially, once her shift started. 

Good-bye Kate. Hello guard Noonan.

He’d pushed things, he knew. He just didn’t know how far.


End file.
